Environment & Climate Change

From climate science to healthcare to waste management, read on for key takeaways from our team’s activities at Arctic Encounter Symposium 2024 in Anchorage, Alaska.

The Arctic Initiative team helped kick off discussions for the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning Process 2022-2026 (ICARP IV) research priority teams at the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Many issues in the Arctic are transboundary in nature and cannot be solved at the national level. A study group, led by Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Margaret Williams, examined several key Arctic issues - maritime safety and security, commercial fisheries, and climate change and energy - and the difficulties of addressing them without Russian involvement.

Confronted by the accelerating climate crisis, Western governments, NGOs, and academia are grappling with a difficult question: Should the West engage with Russia on science and conservation, at a time when Russia is waging an unjust and violent war on a sovereign nation?

This study group, led by Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Margaret Williams, is evaluating the costs and benefits of renewing cooperation with Russia on science and conservation issues.

Climate change is threatening the network of winter ice roads that connect Canada's remote Northern communities. Airships could provide a sustainable transportation alternative.

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School is pleased to announce the appointment of Jennifer Spence as Project Director of the Center’s Arctic Initiative. As Project Director, she will steward the Initiative’s scholarship, policy engagement, and youth leadership training on the challenges being created by climate change in the Arctic.

This report is based on insights from a two-day workshop hosted by the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative in collaboration with the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, the Center for Ocean Governance at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, and the Wilson Center's Polar Institute. Participants developed practical recommendations for facilitating climate science cooperation through the Arctic Council and other institutions.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has devastated Ukraine’s natural environment and the health and well-being of its citizens, but the war’s impacts have also had direct and indirect environmental effects in the Arctic.

This study group, led by Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Margaret Williams, is evaluating the costs and benefits of renewing cooperation with Russia on science and conservation issues.

This six-session study group, led by Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Margaret Williams, evaluated the costs and benefits of renewing cooperation with Russia on science and conservation issues. In the process, participants learned about the Arctic's unique environmental and cultural characteristics, as well as the key agreements and governance structures supporting environmental protection and sustainable development in the region. 

Jennifer Spence and Sara Olsvig adress the question of how Arctic states can engage Russia in the shared pursuit of pan-Arctic security, stability, and cooperation, while still holding it to account for its egregious violation of international law in invading Ukraine.